Research and analysis

Chesterfield UKSPF evaluation: impact and value for money findings – executive summary

Updated 28 August 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) was launched by the UK Government in April 2022. It provided £2.6 billion funding for local investment by March 2025, with an additional £900 million available for 2025-26. Local decision-makers worked with their local communities and partners to deliver interventions under three investment priorities: Communities and Place, Supporting Local Businesses, and People and Skills. UKSPF empowered places to identify and build on their own local strengths and needs, with a focus on enhancing community pride and increasing life chances.

Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) received £2.7 million of funding for UKSPF for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25 across three investment priorities: Communities and Place (£1.3 million), Supporting Local Businesses (£0.9 million), and People and Skills (£0.5 million). An additional £1.1 million was allocated for 2025/26^{[footnote 1]} which falls outside this study’s scope.

Chesterfield is a predominantly urban borough in Derbyshire. Chesterfield town is approximately 11 miles south of Sheffield and is the borough’s central hub. It is a densely populated area providing a range of opportunities for businesses, and most residents are satisfied with Chesterfield as a place to live. Despite this, Chesterfield’s economy faces several significant challenges, and the area has above-average levels of deprivation. In response, Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) introduced its Growth Strategy for 2023 – 2027, which is guided by 3 over-arching principles: higher-value growth, inclusive growth, and environmentally sustainable growth.

Key impact evaluation findings

Communities and Place

Perception of place

Project lead interviews, survey data, monitoring returns and external recognitions all indicate that UKSPF-supported improvements to green and open spaces have led to an improved public perception of the local area. For example, a project focused on planting almost 4,000 trees led a 16% increase in perception of the amenities among 49 consulted stakeholders reported by CBC. The interventions were also recognised externally, for example three of the parks targeted by UKSPF received the Green Flag Award, which celebrates well‑managed, high‑quality parks and green spaces.

Increased footfall

Footfall in Chesterfield town centre increased by 97,000 (20%) and reached a peak of almost 1.5 million during the period of UKSPF-supported events such as the Peddler Market, Christmas events and the 1940s market. Additionally, interviews with project leads reported that businesses surrounding the town centre saw increased footfall during the event weekends.

Increased tourism

CBC’s marketing campaign reached 7.5 million people in total. Monitoring data from CBC claims that the number of visitors coming to Chesterfield from outside the borough increased by 65,000 thanks to this intervention, representing a 42% increase. STEAM data also shows an initial increase in visitors of 17% from 2021 to 2023.

Community engagement and activity

According to CBC monitoring data, the Community Grants Programme led to an increase of 217 (92%) individuals participating in community life. In the Community Grants survey, six participants reported that UKSPF funding had enabled them to reach new community members. Additionally, support services provided by CBC targeted deprived areas of the borough, enabling community outreach to previously unreached residents.

The Community Grants survey indicated that, for around half of respondents, UKSPF funding had enabled organisations to reach a greater share of the community for the longer term, develop new expertise or experience in the organisation, and increase the variety and quality of their activities. As examples, Mindscapes, a photography and peer support group, and Derby Unemployed Workers Centre both reported reaching new participants through UKSPF-supported events.

Supporting Local Business

Job safeguarding and creation

Financial or non-financial assistance was delivered to 520 businesses through two activities; Vision Derbyshire Business Start Up and Business Growth and Low Carbon projects. CBC monitoring returns and business survey data provide evidence of jobs being safeguarded, and even new jobs being created, because of the Supporting Local Business funding. For example, CBC monitoring returns suggests that the Business Growth and Low Carbon initiative resulted in the safeguarding of 95 jobs among its beneficiaries, 79% of its target of 120, and the creation of 80 new jobs, thereby supporting the assumption that UKSPF funding can help retain and safeguard jobs.

People and Skills

Skills development

Interventions were delivered through three strands: Digital support, Care sector support and manufacturing sector support. Activities focused on upskilling the existing workforce and potential workforce. According to CBC monitoring data, the Workforce Skills Training programme and Work Readiness programme both achieved their targets in terms of people upskilled or receiving a qualification, with 41 people for the former and 153 for the latter.

Key economic evaluation findings

The UKSPF programme in Chesterfield demonstrated adequate-to-high value for money across the 4Es framework.

• Economy – High: CBC managed to deliver all interventions as per the Investment Plan and spend the £2.69m funding allocated within the timeframe of the programme. Where there was some underspend, which was always small, for example due to low uptake of training courses or issues with contractors, it was successfully reallocated within the same theme. When the delivery was sourced externally, funding calls were widely publicised and attracted a good level of interest. All delivery partners had clear requirements in terms of the intervention to be implemented and expected outcomes, and regularly shared updates with CBC, ensuring an ongoing monitoring of the quality of the delivery.
• Efficiency – High: Chesterfield has made very good progress against output targets and done so at costs that are broadly in line with similar initiatives elsewhere. Moreover, in some cases CBC was able to leverage its own funds to maximise the offering, especially for community projects.
• Effectiveness - Adequate: Chesterfield has made good progress against many of its target outcomes, using the expected budget. Some of the outcomes (e.g. increased business turnover and productivity, reduced economic inactivity) will take time to materialise, so it was not possible to capture them in this evaluation. The intervention has helped tackling a number of local socio-economic challenges, such as improving the perception and attractiveness of the town centre and facilities across the area and strengthening the local social fabric.
• Equity - Adequate: CBC’s UKSPF Investment Plan had a clear focus on targeting interventions to those beneficiaries that need it the most, especially with community interventions targeting areas of deprivation. The plan was developed in consultation with a variety of stakeholders, to ensure that the priorities and interventions were selected in line with the needs of local residents, including in terms of target beneficiaries and areas.

Key learnings

The following key learning and lessons have been identified, which will support design and delivery of future local growth funds:

• Interactions between different interventions increase their effectiveness. Many of the interventions implemented in Chesterfield targeted different needs of stakeholders, that were able to combine them to improve the final result. For example, business advisory activities referred many businesses to the skill brokerage services, improving the reach of the latter intervention and providing beneficiaries with a more complete support.
• Uncertainty on the continuity of future funding can negatively affect the achievement of outcomes. As interventions in the community and business priorities relied on creating a relationship of trust and on long-term engagement, the limited time for the funding hindered some of the achievement expected outcomes. Together with other issues, for instance in terms of losing acquired skills within the Council workforce, this lack of continuity discouraged some of the beneficiaries from undertaking further changes, losing the momentum generated by UKSPF.

1. The funding was allocated to the East Midlands Combined County Authority, that then reallocated it to the local authorities in the area. ↩